I wouldn't say that TB is "moving" on this. As the latest instigator, I am studying it and thinking about whether to propose some minimal trial and if so what. This thread has revealed quite a number of important concerns I want to address before proceeding.

I was blown away that 400 FTers would care enough to vote on a TB issue. That's all I'll say. :D:cool:

400? Over 650 folks have voted so far.

I remain not convinced that a “like” button will help improve FlyerTalk for a majority of its members.

For this reason, I would prefer testing out a “like” button on a trial basis — by all members of FlyerTalk who wish to participate. I believe the experience will reveal the answers to many questions; as well as either confirm or change the opinions of how FlyerTalk members feel about this functionality...

...not to mention that I typically prefer to reach conclusions based on actual data rather than supposition and speculation.

We now have 666. :eek:

:D:D:D

And how is the like/helpful button improving FT then?



Take for example the macrumors site. It has similiariteis with FT as it is a community of engaged people discussing their hobby. However, it is quite different fron FT as it is extremely uniform. It has become this way because when someone posts something outside the common view, it is downvoted and anone bashing the opponent is upvoted.

Now add that like/helpful system to FT and I can easily see the same hapening here on some of the forums where people are very pro their airline and takes all criticism as an attack.

Now, how can FT survive as a discussion site if people start to vote for "the right" posts/posters?

If there isn't a downvote button, it's hard to see how things could get out of hand. But a trial would be needed to demonstrate what happens either way. The human element is hard to predict.

A like/don't like button doesn't reflect the true feeling of the flyertalk community only those reading the post/thread. Low traffic posts/threads/forums can easily be manipulated by a few.

If something is liked or not liked what does it signifying?

When a newbie for the millionth time asks a mundane question, it isn't that far fetched that a snarky "use the search" reply will get numerous likes/helfuls, is it?

Or when the "drive-by-rant-by-first-time-poster" gets what he "deserves", perhaps all the regulars of that forum are happy to show their liking?

If likes can strengthen a poster, I cannot see why it couldn't strengthen posts with unfriendly content.


Human element isn't that hard to predict, but I agree one should give those humans the benfit of a doubt ;)



This is exactly they way I think it works. You need to take your time to learn about the environment you are interacting in. Same as i real life. You need to observe for awhile to get to know the persons you are interacting with. There is no shortcut that can help each and everyone to make up their mind on how to view/understand those they are interacting with. Thinking that like/helpful system is that shortcut is IMHO naive.

There are some very opinionated FT'ers with high post counts that has some reputation (good or bad). But by reading them several times, I have been able to form a picture in my head of them and their personalities and can in the light of that enjoy their posts. If I never formed my image of them and instead relied on post count and/or how liked they are, I probably would have been driven crazy from their posts.

I think this is part of what you'll see. Snarky posts or "smackdowns" will get likes. What sort of message does that send to newbies? FT can already be harsh towards newbies. Do we need something that will encourage that harsh behavior?

Agree. When this new function finally appears, I'll ignore it as both a reader and poster, and when I want to compliment someone, I'll do it the old fashioned way - posting a public thanks or the same thing via pm.

What is FT majority?
 

Majority? I wouldn't go that far to say a few hundred of FTers represent the majority of FTers. As I type, FT currently has 580,160 registered members. That means 1% of FTers is equal to 5802 members. This poll now has 670 votes, which is fewer than 0.2% of FT population.

My guess is we may see no more than 1000 votes when the poll closes. Should we conclude 1000 people speaks for the majority then? I don't think so.

You obviously missed the era when thousands of FTers would vote during TB elections. :p;)

Nevertheless, a FT poll is not the same as TB elections. We have a clear guidelines for TB in terms of elections, motions and decisions. Not so much with any FT poll. I would even say any FT poll is only fuzzy enough to get some rough ideas among the "vocal or expressive" FTers. In the case of Like/Helpful button, I believe points taken is much more valuable than heads counted. I hope our TBers and CD are among the wise to make the right decisions that actually better and/or benefit FT.

That latter is indeed the question, but as far as I can tell the answer is "nothing."

Which leads to the question on the initial point, what is there to manipulate? There's no proposal on the time to give anything away for extra likes, or to show "liked" posts first, etc. Even if there's a little silly bit of egoboo like showing someone's "like" count on their profile page or even in the left column, so what?

--

Let me add the following as an example of a reply where I'd have liked the option of a "Like" button, but where a reply of "Got it, thanks!" would have been noise rather than useful:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24172984-post8.html

I'm pretty ambivalent as far as the for/against debate but do wonder, "How does the like button" improve FT as well...

I think a trial to give folks what it looks like, how FTers use it, etc. would be useful.

OTOH, I want the poster to know that I like/ appreciate his/her post & how many others do. I like & often use the Like button on Milepoint, so I have voted SUPPORT here!